SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western, Morland Wilson is optimistic that housing developments being planned for the parish will help address some of the social ills plaguing it. Several areas in his constituency are being looked at as locations for new housing developments, he said. These include the once violence-plagued community of Kings Valley, the tourist resort of Negril, and the heavily populated Grange Hill area.

“Housing is an issue in Westmoreland. We have a lot of informal settlements, for example in Kings Valley, Alma, Prospect in Friendship, Little Bay, Nonpareil Road in Negril… You have so much of them and, because of that, you have so many social issues,” he lamented.

Lack of proper planning, the MP said, has left many communities flood-prone, difficult to access, and hard to police.

“The Llandilo housing scheme was started in the 50s, but the last section was built in the 70s. We’re looking at almost 50 years we’ve had a housing development from the Government in the parish. This is something that we have to look at strategically,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“Emergency services such as… fire brigades cannot access these places when there is an emergency. Police cannot patrol these communities because they are informal. There is high irregularity with electricity and water and there is no property tax being collected, so there is a multiplicity of issues that come with the informal settlements. These are the social issues that we have to confront and somewhat plan for them because it is not rocket science — it’s just proper urban planning,” Wilson reasoned.

At a March 4 meeting with residents Wilson announced that he was having a series of meetings with landowners to further push his plan to get land titles into the hands of people in Kings Valley. This area is one of those that have been plagued by violence over the years, spawning a notorious gang with the same name. However, there is a major push, by law enforcement,to change its image. Kings Valley will be among the first phase of the new developments.

“I met with their attorney with the intention to regularise the Kings Valley area and they are quite open to the discussion; they are quite eager for persons to have their property title,” Wilson said.

He said although the discussions have just started, he has also met with the Housing Authority of Jamaica to get the plans rolling.

“We did some surveys, cut up the land. Let the people get to live on the land as is; let them pay and get their titles, get all their requisite documents and things in order. So, that is the push right now and that is what we are working on with the attorney for the property in Kings Valley,” Wilson said.

His main goal, he said, is to provide housing and the accompanying infrastructure so that squatting can be curbed.

“We can have community centres, training centres, proper lighting infrastructure, Internet, and all of those modern facilities,” he told the Observer.

Wilson added that this is an initiative he hopes to replicate in other areas of his constituency.

“The idea is to start and go through them one by one. It would be a case where we identify one community — we start with Kings Valley — then we move in to Alma, then Negril, then McNeil Land, because places like McNeil Land, people have invested so much! They build these wonderful homes, and it’s in a low-lying area so it’s going to be challenging for them to move, so we have to look at possible [solutions],” he said.

“Housing is a big thing. It’s a priority for the Government. The Government targets 70,000 housing units in this term. I am bent on ensuring that some of that 70,000 comes to Westmoreland,” the MP added.

— Daina Davy